Grand Rapids Press file photoThe USS Gerald R. Ford CVN 78Susan Ford BalesGerald R. Ford once said that naming an aircraft carrier after the president "wasn't necessary," but daughter
Susan Ford Bales says he was deeply proud of the distinction.

"My father was a very humble man, but he was Navy man," Bales said Friday from Virginia. "He knew what a very special honor it was. He said it wasn't necessary -- but he didn't reject it, either."

Bales, the sponsor for the ship, said the family is gathering in Newport News, Va. for the keel laying ceremony scheduled for Saturday.

Tradition calls for her to write her initials on a steel plate, then watch as a welder traces the letters. The plate then is to be attached to the hull.

Bales said she was spending Friday touring the shipyard as her three brothers and their families make their way into town.

She'll be the only one in the family with her initials on the ship, and tradition calls for her to break the bottle of champagne across the bow when the carrier is christened, likely in 2013, and keep in touch with the crew during the life of the ship.

"The Navy says the sponsor has to be female, and I'm the only one," Bales said, laughing. "I love it."

Bales said her mother, Betty Ford, is unable to attend the ceremony.

"She's doing well for someone who is 91," she said. "I plan to call her today and tell her what everything looks like."

Bales said former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld -- who served as Ford's chief of staff -- personally delivered the news that the carrier would be named after the president.

"My father and 'Rummy' were such close friends, and he presented my father with the first cap bearing the ship's name," she said. "I think it was a special moment for both of them."

Bales said she spent Friday morning touring the shipyard and viewed some of the pieces that will eventually form the hull of the carrier.

"It doesn't look much like a ship at this point," she said. "But we did tour the U.S.S. George H. W. Bush so we have an idea what it will look like, and saw how really big it will be."

The Ford will dwarf the carrier that the president served on during World War II. The U.S.S. Monterey was caught in a typhoon in December 1944, and Ford was nearly swept overboard putting out fires in the ship's hangar deck.